A Weekend of progress

Do you ever have those weekends out of the blue where you are uncharacteristically productive?...Just me?

If you saw my last blog post (an embarrassingly long time ago no doubt) you would see me complaining about my lack of motivation, and that's been the case until this weekend dawned.  Come saturday morning I didn't notice the change of mind, until I came home and cleaned....that's right....hoover in hand, replaced by mop. Usually it's a "I'll leave it to Sunday" job, and then Sunday comes a few weeks later, but not this week.  By lunchtime I had hoovered and mopped the whole house, and done a load of washing.

I was on a course in Newcastle Uni last week and staying with my grandparents, and telling them about the Victorian Ball I'm going to in May, and then my Gran said "It's February next month, you better get on."  I played it cool at the time but in my sub-conscience I was picturing the corset lying in pieces on my floor, and the bag of the crinoline folded on the sewing table, and began to silently panic.  I hadn't even made the petticoat, or decided what colour of silk I wanted....ahhhhh!

Then this weekend came and my worries fettered out (-ish).

What had been just a bag with some ribbons attached to it has now become a nearly finished crinoline.  It involved a lot of pinning and a lot of blue chalk.  There is a slight issue with it in that the opening for the bag is centre back instead of centre front as the instructions suggested (it was too late by the time I realised), but we all know I'm quite bad at following instructions on patterns.  It has a bustle pillow under it because I've seen others do this to get that perfect lift at the back.  It doesn't have the laces at the back either.  I was worried because it isn't quite a flat hem, it's slightly lower at the back.  I thought this might be because the boning overlapped at the centre back of the bag, then realised I hadn't put the supportive laces on the top 4 bones.  Hopefully that is the solution.

Half-way through

The bag isn't closed at the back because I haven't "secured" the bones where they overlap, but that's easily sorted with wire when I get it.

Unfortunately, and the bit I'm not looking forward to, is the by-hand sewing of the boning channels to the supporting ribbons.  Tedium!  I might procrastinate by beginning the corset instead.

Another issue I have with this is how anyone walked anywhere, let alone danced!  I'm meant to be going to a ball, but I couldn't turn around in it without knocking something with the jutted out backside! What were women thinking?  Who looked at the round cage and thought "you know what?  Let's make it bigger, especially at the back so no one knows what their arse is banging into."  As much as I love the way the skirts look, I just don't understand who thought this was a good idea.  It sways no end when you're walking, and there is a safe radius around you where people can't go.  Maybe it wasn't women who decided the crinoline was good, maybe it was overprotective fathers who didn't want lecherous men anywhere near their daughters.  Needless to say the ball will be interesting, especially if there are many of us in these.

Second productive thing was cooking/baking.  I had some overripe bananas and didn't want to waste them.  Another idea from my grandparents was banana bread.  I've made it once, before Christmas to take home, but I specially bought the bananas.  My grandparents said they made it when they had too many bananas left over.  I happened to have too many bananas at the end of the week, and an office full of people who like cake.  That's how two banana loaves came into existence.

The second was more savoury.  My Dad, when I was home at Christmas, was going on about these "chicken in a bag".  It's kind of self-explanatory, they're raw whole chickens in bags; you put the chicken in the oven still in the bag for a set amount of time, and after that you have a cooked chicken instead of all of the faff of basting, etc.  What a good idea! At the time I fobbed my dad off because I don't eat much meat, but when I was in Aldi at the weekend I walked past it and wondered.  Then it ended up in the back seat of my car with the rest of the groceries.

I cooked it as per the instructions and tested it was cooked (if the liquid runs clear).  Then left it to cool.  I must admit to not matching decisions to their consequences.  Chicken is nice, especially roasted chicken, but first you have to get it off the carcass.  Not one of the most pleasant tasks, especially when you're staring at the inner cavity of such a small bird, and the ridges of the spine aren't pleasant either.  It's unpleasant, but the good thing is that I'm a person who'll just get on with it, no fuss.

Fortunately for Remy, unfortunately for me, he could smell it and stood at my feet as I was fingers deep in chicken meat and juices, whining for a piece.  I'd say 3/4 of that chicken ended up in freezer bags, the rest either ended up in his mouth or mine.

All in all a productive weekend, not with writing though but one task at a time.  There is another week of work ahead, folks....good luck.